1. Take stock of your current situation

Take time to understand your company's current workforce diversity to begin to set realistic goals with clear timelines for your organization. Here are a few questions to ask yourself before laying out a DEI strategy for your workplace:

Are you tracking demographic data currently?
How, and to what depth?
Where does your industry stand?
How does your business stand against your industry?
Are there other organizations in your industry you can learn from?
What are you ready to invest in this initiative from $$, people, resources, etc?

Once you've answered these for your organization, you can take the next steps toward implementing a DEI plan and foster a culture of belonging that welcomes more diverse employees to your business.

Ahva Sadeghi is CEO of Symba, a venture-backed and all-female-founded tech startup on the future of work. Ahva is an economist and researcher focused on remote work and workforce development.

2. Build an inclusive recruitment and hiring process.

Your organization should develop clear recruitment metrics around diversity hiring and be able to reflect on how those metrics helped them achieve positive outcomes. Metrics that can indicate positive outcomes are increases in demographic diversity, greater retention of diverse talent, higher returning intern rate for different minority groups, and stronger sense of belonging among interns and full-time employees. If you aren't reaching diverse candidates, try sourcing from alternative talent pipelines like YUPRO, Ripplematch or ColorStack. In addition, pay attention to the diversity of your hiring panel; it's important to candidates to see a person they can relate to in their potential place of work.

Instant Insights /

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